1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a human tracking technique in a mobile electronic system, and more particularly, to a human tracking apparatus and a human tracking method using a forwarding camera and structured light, a storing medium storing a program for executing the method, and a mobile electronic system including the apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
A mobile robot (hereinafter referred to as a robot) is a mobile electronic system that repeatedly performs a simple operation instead of humans.
However, as the demand for more intelligent robots increases, many technologies related to the interaction between robots and humans have been developed. In order to interact with a human, the robot should primarily be able to track the human.
A conventional human tracking method detects an object movement using a picture difference between a background picture and an input picture. However, such a method cannot be efficiently applied to pictures having different backgrounds; only to pictures having the same background. Therefore, since the robot often uses pictures having different backgrounds, the robot cannot be efficiently operated if the robot tracks humans using the human tracking method.
Another human tracking method compares a human region detected from an omni-directional camera using template matching with profile data of a laser rangefinder and controls a motor of the robot according to a relative location between the robot and the human. However, such a method causes a tracking object loss when the template matching fails on a picture taken by the omni-directional camera, and an erroneous tracking of a similar object other than the tracking object.
Another human tracking method tracks a human who carries a transmitting device using a magnet. However, such a method requires the human to carry the transmitting device whenever the human want the robot to follow him.
The robot cannot avoid any obstacles using the above human tracking methods because the human tracking methods do not consider any obstacles and the robot cannot track the human's back; only the human's face.